Article I: On The Privileges Of Regulars In General

2180. • I. Privileges GRANTED to Regulars are either DIRECTLY, by writing or by an oracle of the living voice, or INDIRECTLY, by communication with other privileged persons.

But communication either is made in COMMON form, and embraces only those things which are commonly and without difficulty accustomed to be conceded; or it is made in SPECIAL form, and comprehends also unusual things and those which are of rare and difficult concession: excepted however (unless they are expressed by name) 1) indulgences, under which privileged altars also come; 2) Offices, both proper ones, which are not communicated to Religious using the diocesan Directory, and new ones, for which those who have a proper Calendar need an Indult; 3) exemption from the jurisdiction of Ordinaries.

It MUST BE NOTED: In no communication, however broad, are comprehended: - 1. Certain prerogatives entirely specific, which the Holy See conceded exclusively and privatively to certain Orders, with the faculty made to their Superiors General of communicating them to other Religions, Congregations, or even priests in particular. Thus, for example, the Superior General of the Dominicans communicates to priests petitioning the faculty of blessing rosaries, roses of St. Dominic, girdles of St. Thomas. - 2. Odious privileges, and those which are contrary to proper statutes. - 3. Privileges or Indults conceded for a determined time. - 4. Privileges conceded on account of a special motivating cause with a condition, whether expressed or tacit: as long as the cause perseveres. - 5. Privileges conceded to some convent, province, or to Religious of some Institute existing in certain lands, unless the same or a similar reason militates for the other Religious, convents, provinces, of the same or another Institute. - 6. Privileges generally revoked by Trent or by Apostolic Constitutions, unless they have been conceded anew. Yet advert that only those privileges were revoked by Trent to which a Decree of the Council is contrary with that expressed clause: notwithstanding any privileges whatsoever.²⁰ - 7. Privileges conceded with the clause: that they not be communicated to others, or declared incommunicable; unless some succeeding Pontiff, or the same one later, has conceded a very broad communication with all other Religions, in special form, with effective clauses added, by which all Constitutions and Apostolic Ordinations to the contrary, and all other derogatory clauses, are derogated.²¹

2181. • II. Direct or indirect concessions of privileges are sometimes CONFIRMED by the Holy See, and that either in common form, which does not bestow a new right and leaves individual privileges in that state in which they were before; or in special form, which not only, as the common one, strengthens valid things, but also revalidates invalidated things, and indeed in such a way that lost privileges, or those conceded with the clause "that they not be communicated to others," are judged to have been acquired anew. But if privileges are confirmed more often, and in one confirmation certain things are omitted which are had in another, the omitted things are by no means judged to have been revoked, unless perhaps they were opposed to Trent or to some Apostolic Constitution which had revoked privileges of this kind generally.²²

2182. • III. Whatever has been conceded to the Superiors of one Religion is understood also to have been conceded to all Superiors of other Religions which communicate with them, although the denominations of offices are various.²³ - Similarly, privileges conceded to inferior Prelates are also understood to have been conceded to Superior Prelates; but not vice versa.

2183. • Let it be noted: 1. If a privilege conceded to some Religion is not accepted by it, or is not brought into use, or if it ceases by renunciation or special revocation, no prejudice is thereby created for another Religion which communicates with it.²⁴ And this runs even if the Religion originally privileged were extinguished.

2. A Prelate can, for a just cause, LIMIT for his individual subjects the use of one or another privilege; indeed, the Superior General can extend a limitation of this kind to the whole Order. But if no limitation or prohibition intervenes, and no condition has been added in the Indult, subjects can bring their privileges into use without delegation or license of Superiors.²⁵

3. Privileges 1) communicated to subjects generally (i.e. not for a case) by the Superior General, whether by himself or through subaltern Superiors, ENDURE until they are revoked by him or by his successor; - 2) those communicated by subaltern Superiors by their own right expire when the time fixed for their office has ended, i.e. when a new Superior has entered upon his office; - 3) those to be conceded for a certain number of cases cease only when the number has been exhausted, but not when the office of the one granting has ended.

4. Regulars are bound to EXHIBIT to the Ordinaries of places: 1) even if not required, and before they can use them, privileges with the clause: the Ordinaries of places having been notified; likewise new indulgences, before they are published; 2) if required, yet without meanwhile being able to be interdicted from the use of the privilege, special privileges of exemption, i.e. those which are not contained in the common and notorious law of all Regulars.²⁶

5. "All Regular Orders COMMUNICATE in the privileges of other Orders, whether Mendicant or not";¹ and this communication is sometimes extended also, by special concession, to Congregations of simple vows.